Match Discussion: Game 4 - Stanley (H)

[PON_News]

Game 4 - Stanley (H)

Team: Accrington Stanley

Date: 25/08/17

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Kevin Nolan opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

[samwatto2008]

Same or very similar lineup against Wycombe. Personally I would go for a 4-3-3 against Stanley: Fitzsimmons / Tootle - Brisely - Duffy - Jones / Grant - Hewitt - Yates / Alessandra - Ameobi - Hawkridge. 

I think against a strong Stanley side at the moment, counter attacking football would be our best option. I was disappointed with Collin against Wycombe to be honest. Just was not impressed and my opinion of him will remain unless i see changes. Communication for a goalkeeper is key and he just has not got that attribute. It will be interesting if Forte starts ahead of Stead though this week and see what sort of impact he can have over a 70 minute period rather than 20 minutes.

Stanley score a lot of goals but also concede a lot too. Ill go a 2-2 draw as i think a win will just be out of reach for both teams here.

[Chris]

We need to avoid changes after the Wycombe win, I think the only consideration may be down to tactical reasons.

I can't see Fitzsimons starting, Hewitt should probably be replaced and Stead should start on the bench for me. He hasn't impacted any games to my knowledge and has been very disappointing. We can't keep starting Stead and Ameobi either, it isn't quite working - so give someone else a chance to prove their worth. Stead usually becomes fired up from not starting and if we can get him to replicate his form of last season (before his injury) he would be worth starting.

Accrington will want to slow in their building, so we should get more time on the ball.

Allow Grant and possibly Milsom/Yates to do the running and creativity. We should be good, I'll predict a 2-0 win.

[CliftonMagpie]

Stanley seem to be a more united team these past couple of seasons, I wouldn't be surprised if they beat us 1-0.

[Chris]

You can't say that @CliftonMagpie!! This good feel factor needs to continue, so a draw is the bare minimum.

We just need to see another decent performance because things right now on looking quite good, bar the odd thing which can easily be fixed - I actually feel very confident going into games. I did after Coventry (they're a decent side at this level). 

[TheSkipper]

I would take a point here.

Accrington are not the same side they was a few seasons ago, they are a decent outfit for league two and I can see them being hard to defeat.

[Fozzy]

Swap Hewitt and Stead for Milsom and Forte, then we might have a chance of turning them over. If he goes with the same starting XI as last week, I can't see us getting any more than a draw out of the game. 

[Joe Jones]

County's recent record against Accy is poor - 4 defeats and 2 draws. They'll be a tough proposition but I would suggest that Nolan's done his homework and will have schooled his team appropriately, I reckon a 1-0 win for Notts with a goal midway through the second half.

[Chris]

Tonight's one of those games where past encounters go totally out of the window, it's all about who shows the most determination to win - I think it will be a close game personally but I do believe Notts will edge the final outcome.

There's a lot of teams chasing for a play-off place, so this will make the game interesting as we are both sides that would ultimately want to seek out such position.

Yet it's still early days and we are feeling out our opposition, as will other teams and I just hope that we take the pressure off ourselves by retaining the ball. Accrington Stanley will want us to do a lot of the running around, whilst they absorb the play and wait for us to make a mistake.

[Fozzy]

Plus, win tonight and we go top! 😂👊⚽️🍺 (Alan Hardy emoji overload!)

[Chris]

1 minute ago, Fozzy said:

Plus, win tonight and we go top! 😂👊⚽️🍺 (Alan Hardy emoji overload!)

Oh no, don't say that @Fozzy.

Twitter will have a meltdown and he won't want to go on it again for several days. Haha! 

[TheSkipper]

16 hours ago, Fozzy said:

Swap Hewitt and Stead for Milsom and Forte, then we might have a chance of turning them over. If he goes with the same starting XI as last week, I can't see us getting any more than a draw out of the game. 

This is a good call.

I just can't see how Hewitt or Stead can be given the nod to start after all that Kevin Nolan has said.

[allardyces tash]

Provided Kevin Nolan knows what he wants the players to do tactically we will be fine.

No hoofing it and no passing for the sake of it. Sounds very easy when you put it in those words! 

[Chris]

Yesterday I attended the game by myself, and for the most part I actually felt entertained. We started the game quite brightly - with some very good passing moves created but unfortunately Accrington didn't want us to play on the floor.

It's the same old first half up front, we get into good positions and for some reason things don't plan out well.

Defensively we looked quite solid, and the penalty gave us a lot of confidence which allowed the ball to return to the floor. Yes, we did hoof it but we did also play on the ground when it was required and this gave players like Hawkridge a lot of opportunity.

I didn't see our second goal, yet it seemed to go down hill quickly after from a defensive mindset.

We created a large spell whereby we should have gone 3-0 up easily, yet just couldn't finish the chances. There was a time when Yates received the ball, yet knocked it out-wide when the best option was to actually take an attempt on goal.

Sorry to write this but Duffy is no captain at all. He was in no-mans land and drifting too far up at periods whereby we needed to be structured at the back - yet it's easy enough for people to blame Collin and Brisley. Accrington threatened 2-3 times before they first scored, and we just resort to taking off a striker? I'm not overly downhearted or disappointed. Yet the warning signs was there (even in the first half). Stanley came for a draw, they resorted to time wasting and doing pretty much anything to add minutes on at the end (I'm not referring to the lengthy injury). Why? They could see we was tiring and being fazed out of the game.

[TheSkipper]

Just terrible way to give the game a way.

Going 2-0 up and then allowing them to slowly take over, its just poor and I think the subs ruined things. Wrong time to bring players on and to switch the tactics! I still fail to see why Tootle was sent off. Anyone know?

[allardyces tash]

We are far from the finished product.

I think there is fitness issues underlining the progress that the squad can make. Stead just does not seem able to give anything more than 30 minutes, Hawkridge tries but even he ran out of steam. At half time I thought it would end a draw but to give it a way poorly, no blame but ourselves for me.

[ARLukomski]

So angry and very very disappointed. Still do not understand why a goalscorer was not a main priority in the summer. We all knew Stead and Ameobi would be ok but would not cut the deep enough mustard to take us into a play off place. I'm happy with the amount of chances we created but we need to take them. A goalscorer takes them. Why Ameobi shot when Grant had the freedom of Nottingham to put us 3-1 up I have no idea. Ameobi and Stead won't play all the games this season so why we haven't bought a striker to put into the starting x1 I will never know.  We can't stop conceding either. 7 in 4 games is woeful. Why we keep allowing the opposition back into the game when we're 2-0 up, I have no idea. Wycombe last weekend, Orient last season. We need to stop making life so hard for ourselves. Still feels like we need another centre back. 

[Chris]

We should have finished the game when we had those 3-4 corners in a row, and bombarded Stanley's area with crosses (which I don't understand why we heavily focus on this). I mean, Yates, Ameobi and someone else had key moments where they could have made it 3-0 but we just knocked it out wide.

I don't really understand why we do this when there's space in front or a chance to get a shot on goal.

[DangerousSausage]

It was a frustrating evening. I felt we played some better football than against Wycombe and created a lot of chances. Even if we couldn't get a third goal, two should be enough. Even at 2-1 we should be able to close out the game, but for that we need to be able to keep a cool head and retain possession.

Collin made a spectacular save at the death but from that position their player should really be scoring. A decent finish from there and there's nothing the keeper can do about it. We also struck it lucky with their penalty call in the second half. That said the game should have been over by then.

I'm frustrated but looking at the bigger picture 7 points from 4 games isn't a bad start, especially when you consider the opening day at Coventry. Hawkridge, Jones and Grant give us plenty of creativity, Hewitt has potential in midfield and I'm expecting to see more from Alessandro and Forte too. If our defence can just sort itself out somehow there could be more than just mid-table mediocrity in it this season.

[liampie]

i thought we played well but was unlucky with some of the chances that notts created. their keeper was good at saving, tho we could have scored more passed him if we had have been more direct. i am happy with the draw, its no real loss. we gained a point and something to learn.